DESTRUCTION OP HIVES BY PIGS. 311 



the inhabitants are in a state of torpor, and thus obtains their 

 treasure without incurring any danger himself." 



There is, however, an animal indigenous to this country, 

 which we dread to see in the midst of our hives, more than 

 all the foxes in the neighbourhood, and that is a pig, who, 

 without possessing any immediate relish for the contents of 

 a hive, will frequently overthrow it, from that restless 

 spirit of mischief and destruction, which is inherent in the 

 animal. It is proverbial that good cometh out of evil ; and 

 we once knew a cottager, who had his hives placed on the 

 ground, when his sow with a litter of pigs after her, having 

 obtained admission into his garden, overthrew either by 

 design or clumsiness one of the hives. The screams of the 

 little pigs, and the loud gruntings of the old sow, who were 

 all furiously attacked by the bees, attracted the cottager to 

 his garden, when he saw the damage that had been com- 

 mitted, and the same night witnessed the death of six of 

 his pigs. The cottager wisely determined to place his hives 

 beyond the reach of the old sow in future ; and thus a pig 

 effected, what perhaps all the power of human reason would 

 not have been able to accomplish. 



The lizard and the common newt are great enemies of 

 the bees ; but if the hives be placed on pedestals, they are 

 safe from the depredations of those vermin. The Abbe della 

 Rocca describes the lizard as a truly formidable enemy, and 

 with the view of arresting its depredations, an earthen pot 

 glazed on the inside is put into the ground, half filled with 

 water, the edges of it being parallel with the surface. The 

 lizards fall into the water and are drowned, and it not unfre- 

 quently happens, that a mouse falls into the same trap. 



In general, it ought to be strongly impressed upon the 

 mind of every keeper of bees, that the attacks of their 

 enemies are generally carried on in secret, and therefore 

 he should always be upon the alert to destroy them, before 

 his property has received, perhaps, an irremediable injury. 



